This post is another post in a continuing
series of discussions about the most recent Tennessee
judiciary annual report.The most
recent report was released for the 2013 – 2014 fiscal year (July 1, 2013 to
June 30, 2014).As I previously
discussed, out of the 416 personal injury or death cases that went to trial in
2013 – 2014, a total of only 128 of those cases actually resulted in
damages.The total monetary award for
these 128 cases that resulted in damages was $44,723,979.00.This constitutes an average award of
$349,406.00 per case where damages were actually awarded.However, that number is very deceiving.Specifically, this statistic was
significantly warped by one single award in Shelby County totaling
$33,591,900.00.When this one award is
removed, the total damages awarded in personal injury or death trials in
Tennessee for the 2013 – 2014 fiscal year totals $11,132,079.00.This results in average award of
$87,654.16.

Interestingly, out of the 128 cases where
damages were awarded, only 27 cases resulted in awards of $100,000.00 to
$1,000,000.00.There were only 2 cases
that were awarded over $1,000,000.00 in the State of Tennessee for 2013 – 2014
(this includes the above discussed $33,591.900.00 award).The remaining 99 cases were all awarded damages
somewhere between $1 and $99,999.99.Once again, obviously a substantial amount of cases settled before going
to trial so there are obviously very significant cases that never go to trial
and are instead settled.However these
statistics show how few large jury verdicts there are in Tennessee on an annual
basis.These statistics are very helpful
in providing a measuring stick to assess Tennessee cases and the value for
those Tennessee cases.These numbers
show, once again, how favorable things are for the defense in Tennessee.

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